Sunday, July 27, 2014

Christianity in Iraq – "the end is very near"

"Things are so desperate, our people are disappearing," says Canon Andrew White, the courageous Vicar of Baghdad.

"We have had people massacred, their heads chopped off.

"Are we seeing the end of Christianity? We are committed come what may, we will keep going to the end, but it looks as though the end could be very near.

"The Christians are in grave danger. There are literally Christians living in the desert and on the street. They have nowhere to go.

"We do not want Britain to forget us. We - and I'm saying 'we' talking like an Iraqi Christian - have always been with the British because they have already been with us. Individual churches, individual Christians in Britain, have been a bigger help than anybody around the world."

But as the Sunni-Wahhabi-Salfist Jihadists of the Islamic State carry on cleansing with impunity, the United States says nothing; the European Union says nothing; and the United Kingdom does nothing. Millions of Christians across the Arab-Muslim world are being systematically persecuted, tortured, beheaded or exiled into the desert, and the leaders of the Western world don't even lift a finger in prayer.

Or perhaps they do pray, but as their words fly up, their thoughts remain below. And words without thoughts never to heaven go.

"We do not want Britain to forget us," is the plea of Canon White. And yet we have. Or most of us have. Or HM Government has. Christians are the world's most persecuted people, and still British foreign policy fails to reflect the appalling reality or agitate for religious freedom or make aid contingent on adherence to Article 18.

..the world's Christians fall through the cracks of the left-right divide – they are too religious for liberals and too foreign for conservatives. In the UK, it is socially respectable among the secular elite to regard Christianity as weird and permissible to bully its followers a little. This produces the surreal political reality in which President Obama visits Saudi Arabia and "does not get the time" to raise the suppression of Christianity in the oil-rich nation; and in which Prime Minister Cameron gets a broadside from illiberal secularists for the historically unquestionable assertion that Britain's culture is formed by Christian values.

And so "the end could be very near" for Christianity in Iraq, where the Chaldean and Assyrian churches have worshipped since the earliest centuries of the Christian era. Without Western intervention, the end will surely come. Christ built His church, and the gates of ISIS have prevailed against it.

Foreign policy bows to domestic policy: the presence in Britain of several million Muslims whose devotion the authorities fear and whose votes the politicians court. If keeping the peace and clinging to power mean the extinction of Christianity, at home as much as abroad, so be it. I’d like to think that Christians who have championed immigration and multiculturalism are now beginning to reflect on the appalling reality they have helped bring about.

His Grace. “...But only because we stood by, watched, and did nothing. “

Not entirely fair. Our Creator equally has done nothing, but that’s him all over.

Anyway, what would doing something entail ? You can appreciate the race of people involved here. The only way to stop them is to kill some of them, and that isn’t going to happen. Better to let them get on with it, and then deal with what the decay results in, which looks to be a continuingly unstable state, fracturing at the sides, inhabited by the barking mad.

By the way, if you have nothing left but prayer, you do indeed have nothing left...

Sadly, there are many in the West who hate God and who therefore hate his followers and feel no pity for their suffering. The UK has become like a plant pulled out of the ground from it's roots. It denies and hates it's Christian heritage and thinks it can survive without any spiritual foundation. Thus the dulled consciences when it comes to Iraq.

Just made another donation to FRRME. It feels like the least I can do. I would encourage believers to pray too. God heard our prayers over Meriam Ibrahim, so let's not give up.

Then came Libya. Let's get behind those charming young men who want to overthrow Gaddafi. Came within a whisker of getting involved there.

Egypt? Bye Bye Mubarak, hello the military.

Syria: Must get that dreadful Assad out. Have to support the rebels; freedom loving democrats that they are. It would be the greatest fun though, to send over the RAF. Too bad public opinion was so much against it.

Now they're slaughtering the Christians.

Mustn't get involved with that. Can't interfere with a country's sovereignty.

During the Spanish Civil War an International Brigade was formed.Men whose sympathies were expessed by action went over by the thousands.

ISIS is an army of volunteers.

Nothing similar is on the horizon to offer succour to our Christian brothers.

Why not?

O, I see. Of Course!

The Iranians will eventually have to take care of it.No need for us to get invoved.

Christianity swells and grows in many parts of Africa and China is on course, at present trends, to become the country with the greatest number of Christians. In the west it withers and in the ME it is cruelly persecuted; yet our Governments' focus is deliberately elsewhere, whilst the appalling plight of millions of Christians is a matter of cruel indifference. How utterly shameful !

Oh how debased, cruel, callous and inhuman our "main" political parties have become as the nation worships itself, often in the guise of false pretend "convenient" religion, bossy intolerant illiberal secularism, or the strains of atheism and Humanism which are indifferent to true human flourishing, freedom and happiness. To think that this was the country that stamped out the cross-Atlantic slave trade, spending treasure and blood, on the RN sealing the ports of West Africa from the slavers. Yet here facing a clear human tragedy of holocaust proportions, we remain mute. The EU and the US are also shamefully silent on these matters of strategic, global-cultural and historic significance. Thank God for the few Churchmen, and that fine man Lord Sacks, who speak out for the persecuted Christians of Iraq and the ME. But the "lead" politicians, with their skewed morality, ignore them.

How fallen is Albion, onetime defender of basic human freedoms, and how cursed this nation must surely become, for God's justice to be expressed, as it surely will, in his own time. Let all who still remember, fear and love God, pray that they and theirs are spared from that judgement, whose hour is as ever unknown. May God have mercy on this nation' callous indifference and rebellion against Him.

The government, and Obama, would do an awful lot, awfully quickly, if it might be that one or two gay people were being given a bad time. Stephen Fry would demand it, Peter Tatchell too - my goodness, you see some action! But ... Christians ...

@ Manfarang (11:50)—William Arthur Dunkerley’s flight of fancy is of its time. He had the good fortune to live in an homogeneous Christian land and his ‘great fellowship of love’ was coloured imperial pink. It must have seemed to him that Christianity would be top dog for ever.

Your Grace,This awful tragedy continues as you so rightly report it.I doubt if there is a genuine Born Again Christian in the Government so why should they risk upsetting the other religions in the UK by supporting Christians in the Middle East.

Despite there assertions that this is a Christian country, Multiculturalism demands that you don't take sides.

What are we to do additional to prayer? We could write to the PM? Fat lot of good that would do.

How about a new crusade? We could send all those new Noble Barons to fight for the cause (one way of reducing the numbers of the upper house). Instead of the Islamic youth of this country going on their Jihad, our Christian youth can learn what it's like to fight a good fight for the cause of truth and civilisation. Sure as sure, once these Jihadists have secured their purpose over there, they will be at our borders again taking command through violence.

It was said with more than a tinge of Irony. I would not want to send our young people there. Even though we saw how the Egyptians ran in 1967. We also saw how the Iraqis failed to put up a straight fight in 1990/1 and 2003.

They have learnt that a war of attrition has greater effect on the moral of the home country.

Why doesn't someone in the upper echelons of any of the denominations of Christianity organise a march in the centre of London. They ought to be able to rustle up several million attendees, I'd have thought, especially if a letter was read out in the Roman Catholic churches in that manner they seem to favour. Heck, if the bloodsports people can rustle up a massive march against a fox-hunting ban then surely our collective Christians could top that. I'd even attend myself.

Blogger Shadrach said...Well said DanJo. But not right at the moment. In the early 1990's there were regular 'March for Jesus' which Graham Kendrick was involved with and they attracted many thousands. Now however, we can hardly get a couple of hundred to protest outside Westminster. We are all 'closet' Christians and afraid to 'come out' and be counted, to use terms normally used by others.

Wimps are what we are in the eyes of Jesus. We must be bolder if we want to see the blessing of God in our lives and our country.

The Catholic hierarchy, by and large, has a very clear view of what is needed to put an end to the bloodshed in the Middle East. The starting point is that it’s all Israel’s fault. To suggest otherwise would be to run the unthinkable risk of looking unfashionable and out of touch.

Thank you. I was and am still feeling angry about their suffering, and it takes a lot to get me angry. So I have just been for a soothing walk with my wife.

For us, and the EU and the US, just to sit and purposefully ignore it is unspeakable, morally bankrupt, and there will be a reckoning I am sure. I believe I'm right in saying that Lord Sacks compared to the Jewish holocaust, and a very senior rabbi of his standing and wisdom would not say that lightly. Heaven must be awash with the bitter tears of the Heavenly Host.

"The Catholic hierarchy, by and large, has a very clear view of what is needed to put an end to the bloodshed in the Middle East. The starting point is that it’s all Israel’s fault."

Where is the evidence for this assertion?

There was an event organised by Eastern-rite Church leaders in London yesterday outside the Houses of Parliament at 12 noon. Supporters unable to attend the demonstration were asked to "join us in prayer" at 12 noon by saying the Angelus prayer to the Virgin Mary for all people suffering in the Middle East.

The Eastern Iraqi churches led by the Syrian Orthodox Archbishop Toma Dawood, Syrian Catholic Monsignor Nizar Semaan, Chaldean Catholic Father Nadheer, Ancient Church of the East Corepiscopos (Khoury) Fr Dr Khoshaba, Eastern Assyrian Father Tony and others joined forces to demonstrate.

So far Happy Jack can find no media reports on this. Instead, there is wide coverage of the reported thousands who rallied in Parliament Square, London, in protest against Israel's assault on Gaza and British arms sales to Israel.

Thank you for that information. I would certainly join any Christian march, or indeed any march organised by responsible people with appropriate motives.

The point you report regarding the way that the MS media create the public opinion, shaping it in fact, exemplifies the sheer outright corruption and moral bankruptcy of the vast majority of the western media. Yes of course the Gaza sufferings are most significant but the full picture there, the context, cause and effect if you like, putting it somewhat simplistically, is never brought out clearly, whilst even greater sufferings elsewhere are purposefully ignored. The media is not fit for purpose. It has set itself up as judge and jury of world affairs. By what authority, moral or political, is it doing that ? A plague on their houses, I say. May God be their judge.

Yet again our Heavenly Father's heart must be broken as He watches what is happening to his chosen people and those who are His adopted children, the Christians. To read what is happening in the ME is truly dreadful. But then to hear about China and some of the African and South American countries brings a glimmer of hope. Maybe countries such as the UK and USA have fallen so far from grace that judgement will fall on those nations and others will be adopted and the faith will grow and flourish elsewhere. We can have only ourselves to blame. But we must not fear as the faithful will be take to glory although we may have to suffer as Paul, Peter and the other saints down the ages suffered for their faith - and as B&B owners, bakers et al are suffering now. My hope and prayer is that if trouble comes my way because of my faith, that I will be strong enough to stand, clad in the armour of Christ. And finally, prayer should never be the last resort, it should be the first resort and continued without ceasing.

In respect of the subject of this post, it is appalling that this situation has happened. Personally I can only see the way in which these Christians can be saved is via military intervention.

Alas the only power capable of leading such an assault, the USA, does not want to do so. Probably a mixture of exhaustion via the war on terror, lack of any allies to help, a public opinion that simply does not want to be involved in foreign wars & the inertia of the Obama administration. So these poor, defenceless people will be left to their fate.

The other thing that galls me is that Israel defends herself against an ISIS like organisation called Hamas and hundreds of thousands of people protest in London, Paris, Berlin & in France turns into pogroms.

But then there is not a whiff of protest against what is happening to Christians or the pogroms against the Jews of France. Yet if Israel is further weakened she will have an ISIS at her throats even more & we shall suffer the same fate as Iraqi Christians . It is appalling. Why do people object to Israeli Jews defending themselves? Jews will be looking at Iraq and thinking this 'won't be us, not again'.

I only hope that somehow, possibly via a miracle or the coming of Messiah, that the Iraqi Christians might be saved from the slaughter.

As it now, the Christians of the middle east will be slowly ethnically cleansed, Israel will continue to be demonised. And ISIS will grow stronger.

Not good.

PS- if there was an intervention to save the Christians from being slaughtered and ISIS started putting Christians in the line of fire, £10 says that the UN would start taking interest & cry 'war crime' against those trying to save the Christians??

It's curious, is it not, Your Grace, how we never see a country described as the 'Christian Kingdom/Republic of...'. For a nation to self-describe in such terms would be to invite outraged cat-calls of 'bigot' and 'racist' from the all-powerful 'international community'. There was a time when the King of France was described on Papal authority as 'His Most Christian Majesty', a most unprogressive title mercifully dispensed with during the Revolution. Indeed,one can only express surprise that our own Queen is still allowed to be the Supreme Governor of a Christian church.

There are of course, endless inconsequential Islamic Republics, Kingdoms and Emirates, mostly religiously exclusive and intolerant, if not deeply misogynistic and frequently mendicant too. Most of them lauded by the Left for their heroic opposition to Anglo-Zionist Imperialism.

When reads of the attack by a Muslim mob on a Paris synagogue it is possible to feel that a turning point has been reached. How long before a Muslim mob dares to attack Notre Dame or Westminster Abbey to protest against some imagined insult to Allah?

Your communicant predicts that a popular awakening is at hand. As usual the political class will follow at a comfortable distance; there is no greater threat than a challenge to ones fixed ideas. But the vox pop will mobilise and their cries become an overwhelming clamour. The Christians will become a greater embarrassment than the Eurosceptics and as yet, the Christian vote will swamp the Muslim vote. That is the danger to the settled order that lies ahead in 2015.

Your question is a fair and practical one. However apart from our resident, retired military American gentlemen, Carl, none of your usual suspects on this blog are militarily qualified, and therefore able to answer that question - point one.And yes, if useful protective actions are to be taken, in respect of these persecuted people, it surely must be a military option that is needed, do you not agree ? That's point two.But this is the key point, morally. For we see no evidence whatsoever, that the politicians have even sought advice regarding whether, merely whether, there are any realistic military actions. The only sound I hear is of a deafening callous indifference, to a situation directly flowing from the regime change that they themselves, the US and the UK, and the west broadly, put into motion, without a thought for the consequences or how one, post-conquest, realistically holds it all together, after their "glorious victory". Indeed not even a speech, not even the faintest squeak of protest is heard from our political elite, as the innocent of Mosul are raped, beheaded or crucified even ? If at least, the politicians sought to ameliorate the situation, thereby at least acknowledging some measure of moral responsibility, but were advised that relief was impossible, militarily, that would be one moral position; but the one that they do now occupy, of total studied disinterest, is an altogether, far lower moral station. Indeed they occupy it to their eternal shame. So in summary, no I cannot say realistically what could or should be done, in practical terms, but I want to see my country's leaders, and those of the US and other leading nations, exploring whether there is a protective, military possibility ? And if that is not feasible, can they not find economic, or political, or moral levers for exerting pressure on these people ? Or is their guilt and embarrassment so great and pressing, that their reaction is to pretend that nothing is happening ? Their silence will only hasten the day before we, ourselves will have to fight them. That's my opinion., albeit unqualified militarily. Do you have a view Clive Mitchell ?

yep. Secret courts defy logic and reason. Let's start with home, where charity begins. Let's have a landmark ruling to open those courts and get those poor little disabled kids back home and rape-free. Shall we? I think so. It's time.

The only power on earth which could muster the army required to defeat ISIS AND occupy their territory to protect the Christian population is NATO, and the vast bulk of that force would have to be provided by the United States. Defeating ISIS in the field would be the (relatively) easy bit; the difficult bit would be, as in Iraq previously and Afghanistan, holding the territory and pacifying it in the teeth of a permanent guerrilla insurgency which also has the home advantage. Off the top of my head, I can think of no example in history where an occupying army has ultimately prevailed in such a scenario; the sheer effusion of blood and treasure wears down the occupiers faster than the guerrillas. NATO would be required to occupy a huge swathe of the Middle East, crossing Syria and Iraq; this is an area filled with battle-hardened insurgent and hostile forces who possess a bewildering array of military hardware. These forces do not wear uniforms and fight in formation, so the occupiers would face a massive multi-dimensional conflict against an enemy who could not even be identified, and who changed allegiance at the drop of a hat.

If the Western military powers have no stomach for such a scenario, it is with very good reason.

Jack agrees with the futility of trying to interfere further in the Islamic civil war that is coming - until necessary for the interests of the West. Regrettably, it appears inevitable that Christianity is going to be crushed out of existence in the middle east.

However, where is the protest? The political 'noise' in the face of this holocaust? The outrage? Do our governments care? There could be some physical protection of the Christian minority in the Middle East against ISIS and its like - targeted air reprisals against ISIS, perhaps. At the very least the West should be ensuring the safe exodus of Christians and other faith groups out of the region.

The force which has proved itself best able to stand up to ISIS, and which has shown itself religiously sane and tolerant of minorities, is the Kurdish Peshmerga. Rather than intervene directly, the Western powers would do much better to back an independent Kurdish state in Northern Iraq and arm the Peshmerga.

In Syria, the tragic fact is that the only force capable of resisting the Islamists is that of the Assad regime, whilst in the South of Iraq fighting ISIS is going to depend upon Iran, to whom ISIS is as much of an enemy as it is to us. Iran's persecution of Christians has been highlighted on this blog, but Iran holds out the possibility of improvement and engagement, whilst ISIS advances nothing but insane extremism. The West working with Iran directly may be difficult to swallow, but it is well worth considering; Stalin's Russia was also the lesser of two evils.

Don't be too taken in by the manufacturer's rhetoric of surgical weapons; yes, a cruise missile can be directed into a target with precision measured in centimetres, but that precision is only as good as the intelligence which knows exactly what is around the target. Laser guided bombs are extremely accurate, but you still need someone to laser-highlight the correct target. ISIS, like Hamas (although Hamas would fight ISIS too; this United Islamist claim is crap), operates in civilian areas, and any air strikes against ISIS targets would result in more collateral damage than actual ISIS casualties. Ultimately, the US Air Force dropping bombs on ISIS would just give them more of a reason to scream 'crusade' and step up persecution, but would have no effect whatsoever in protecting Christians on the ground; only large-scale deployment of troops could do that - all the technology in the world doesn't alter the fact that boots on the ground make the real difference.

The European religious conflicts took centuries, and an enormous effusion of blood, before we reached the point we have today, and even today we have not completely resolved those conflicts, though we do much better now than we did in the 16th/17th centuries.

If various strands of Islam cannot resolve their differences peacefully, and if what it takes to bring about an Islamic enlightenment, as it did in Europe, is decades of horrendous conflict, then there really is very little we outsiders can do about it. Of course we should do everything we can to encourage peace, and to help the victims of conflict, but ultimately we cannot force them to live together in harmony and if they are determined to fight out their religious differences in the way we Western Europeans once did, then I don't see how we can stop them.

Well it appears that this blog does have access to a number prepared to comment upon the options for military involvement in Iraq, but not being a military expert I shall l leave it to them. Where's Carl when we need him ?

My outrage is primarily because of two things. Firstly despite our culpability, no one in the western leadership is even showing concerns for the current massacres, whilst seeking to discover whether anything practical can be achieved by military or other means. Secondly no one is attempting even a limited rescue operation, or a protection whilst they retreat to Kurdistan operation, the latter seeming a more realistic one to me because of the sheer numbers of refugees involved.

I will certainly be looking for the west to give practical assistance to the Kurds, who are proving themselves to be a centre of sanity and steely resolve in an area of debased.

So many in the west will look down their secular and "liberal" noses with disdain at the inferior, misguided religious types of the ME tearing themselves to pieces, whilst being totally unaware of how misinformed, biased and slanted are in fact their own world views. Thanks to our hopeless media most of the western populations have very little idea or perspective on what is really happening and the underlying causes let alone where the blame really lies.

As to what military discussions have taken place I don't know. Like yourself I suspect very little or none. The truth is without the USA we don't have the heavy lifting to get sufficient personnel and kit in. What we do have is working full time removing kit from Afganistan.

There is a moral imperative to do what is possible. Sadly we have sunk so low what this country can do on its own us restricted to Trooping the Colours for the Queen.

The truth is there isn't much we can do. Our 2003 intervention made it much worse, as did our support for the 'Arab Spring' including NATO air support on the rebel side in Libya. Which is now a failed state with the capital on fire. Thanks to us.

Agree with Jack we should try to offer safe haven to Mosul's Christian refugees. Also agree with DanJo we need to recognise the malignant nature of Islam, recognise we're in a hole and stop digging-i.e. 100% stop of Muslim immigration including for msrriage.

But we won't, will we?

Haven't read anything yet to overturn my hypothesis that the west is on its final descent due to our rejection of Christ. Like frogs hypnotised by snakes.

Remember Eli's wicked sons Hophni and Phineas of whom it is written 'But they did not listen, for it was the will of the LORD to slay them...'

About His Grace:

Archbishop Cranmer takes as his inspiration the words of Sir Humphrey Appleby: ‘It’s interesting,’ he observes, ‘that nowadays politicians want to talk about moral issues, and bishops want to talk politics.’ It is the fusion of the two in public life, and the necessity for a wider understanding of their complex symbiosis, which leads His Grace to write on these very sensitive issues.

Cranmer's Law:

"It hath been found by experience that no matter how decent, intelligent or thoughtful the reasoning of a conservative may be, as an argument with a liberal is advanced, the probability of being accused of ‘bigotry’, ‘hatred’ or ‘intolerance’ approaches 1 (100%).”

Follow His Grace on

The cost of His Grace's conviction:

His Grace's bottom line:

Freedom of speech must be tolerated, and everyone living in the United Kingdom must accept that they may be insulted about their own beliefs, or indeed be offended, and that is something which they must simply endure, not least because some suffer fates far worse. Comments on articles are therefore unmoderated, but do not necessarily reflect the views of Cranmer. Comments that are off-topic, gratuitously offensive, libelous, or otherwise irritating, may be summarily deleted. However, the fact that particular comments remain on any thread does not constitute their endorsement by Cranmer; it may simply be that he considers them to be intelligent and erudite contributions to religio-political discourse...or not.

The Anglican Communion has no peculiar thought, practice, creed or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ's Church from the beginning.Dr Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1945-1961

British Conservatism's greatest:

The epithet of 'great' can be applied only to those who were defining leaders who successfully articulated and embodied the Conservatism of their age. They combined in their personal styles, priorities and policies, as Edmund Burke would say, 'a disposition to preserve' with an 'ability to improve'.

I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS.(Prime Minister 1979-1990)

We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC.(Prime Minister 1957-1963)

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.Sir Winston Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can).(Prime Minister 1940-1945, 1951-1955)

I am not struck so much by the diversity of testimony as by the many-sidedness of truth.Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC.(Prime Minister 1923-1924, 1924-1929, 1935-1937)

If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the military, nothing is safe.Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, KG, GCVO, PC.(Prime Minister 1885-1886, 1886-1892, 1895-1902)

I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad. I seek to preserve property and to respect order, and I equally decry the appeal to the passions of the many or the prejudices of the few.Benjamin Disraeli KG, PC, FRS, Earl of Beaconsfield.(Prime Minister 1868, 1874-1880)

Public opinion is a compound of folly, weakness, prejudice, wrong feeling, right feeling, obstinacy, and newspaper paragraphs.Sir Robert Peel, Bt.(Prime Minister 1834-1835, 1841-1846)

I consider the right of election as a public trust, granted not for the benefit of the individual, but for the public good.Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool.(Prime Minister 1812-1827)

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.The Rt Hon. William Pitt, the Younger.(Prime Minister 1783-1801, 1804-1806)